Black Ship
by Ronin Setora
Summary: A fic that shows why I think Hiko became a potter. 3rd person centered on Hiko.


Black Ship  
Ronin Setora  
09.15.02  
  
  
A smile in battle is unnerving to the reciever. A powerful warrior knows this.  
One particular warrior knew this concept well and demonstrated his confidence by showing his smile. But   
the other warrior was powerful as well. The other warrior was quite confident of his skills but not against   
this man that would smile up at him as he approached.  
As he felt warmth torn away from him, along with a small chip of bone, he ealized why his opponent   
would smile but not draw his blade though fighters would rush him. Just before the curtain of black death   
descended upon him, the warrior took on last glance at Seijurro Hiko from behind the milky sheet covering   
his eyes.  
Hiko rose from his slightly crouched posistion and wiped clean his blade. Around him, there was total   
carnage. Bodies littered the ground and burnt planks lay in heaps. The scene was a combination of events.   
Soldiers, of both sides of the war, would come into villages and towns and use them as battlegrounds. The   
people of the town Hiko stood in had started a fire that quickly consumed all the houses and fled, saving   
themselves from the death that accompanied fighting. But without a home, it is dangerous to wander-   
bandits are well armed.  
But Hiko would never have know these things. What he did know was what he had seen- men, armed but   
bearing no crest, tearing through a blackened village. They had not improved his opinion of them by drawing   
their weapons.  
He sheathed his guardless katana, retrieved his large bottle of sake', and continued on the path to the base   
of the mountain he called home.  
  
The following evening, a tall man rose from his squatted position, placed his hands on his hips and gave a   
small grunt. With the grunt, there was a nod and he kneeled to pick up his katana, slipping it into his belt,   
soon after pulling his mantle around his shoulders.  
With a quick last glance at the wooden cross, Hiko walked away from his graveyard, enveloping himself in   
his thoughts. Despite knowing he would eventually forget the people he killed, the thirteenth master of the   
Mitsurugii Ryu continued to bury the bodies of his victims, perhaps out of habit.  
As one that preferred his own company, Hiko never became a loud speaker and thusly, thought aloud in a   
low tone,  
"Around me all these people are dying. It would appear I do not hesitate to do nothing to help them."  
The skillful swordsman shook his head as he stepped into his hut.  
"I help remove the secondary threat of war. I should not even consider taking a side."  
As he shrugged to himself, Hiko continued,  
"The soldiers are all destined to fail anyway. This war will just create another."  
The black haired swordsman looked around the room, and, as it always did, a small scroll attached to the   
wall caught his eye. It seemed to him as if the words of the parchment were there to torment him. He truned   
and walked briskly away from the hut, planning on viewing the sunset during a peaceful walk he believed he   
deserved.  
The paer shook from a chill wind coming through the open door. It's message was looking back at Hiko   
from inside his eyes.  
"One who does not aid his people, is no samurai," were the contents of the page, followed by the eight   
principles of Bushido.  
  
A swordsman bearing a large cloak sat upon a large stone, a cup of sake' being lowered from his lips. He   
looked up at the red sky and began thinking of his previous comment again. He sighed softly,  
"They are afflicted." He paused.  
"The times and minds of man."  
The ken rose and waked away from the stone in the forest. Still deep in his thoughts, he went on,  
"Even if a strong warrior were to surface, he could not change anything."  
After a few more words, Hiko came upon a slaughter in progress. Before stepping in to kill the bandits, he   
made another comment,  
"The bloodshed is senseless and unending."  
Having defeated one man in five swift strokes and wiping his blade, he spoke plainly to a boy that had   
witnessed his company's murder,  
"Hating these men will not bring your family back."  
There is a click as his katana locks to the saya's head.  
"Revel in the fact that you survived."  
Thw swordsman shut the boy's despondent gaze out of his mind and walked away, beginning to ponder   
human behavior yet again.  
  
As he reached his graveyard, prepared to make a tribute to the people he saw die, his eyes grew wide in   
surprise. The same boy he had saved only moments ago was now standing over three new graves.  
"For a child," Hiko thought, "he has an unusually strong in spirit." He decides to strike a conversation with   
the red-headed child.  
"It appears you've made graves for the bandits as well as your family."  
The boy's voice, though a predictable pitch for his age, emerged as both strong and weak at once, showing   
his maturity to counteract his size,  
"They were not my family. They were slave traders. I was sold to them when my parents died of cholera.   
But after they died, they were not bandits or traders; just dead bodies."  
Hiko and the boy continued trading words until the true introductions came about.  
"What is your name boy?"  
"Shinta."  
"Much too weak a name for a swordsman. From now, your name will be Kenshin."  
The boy repeated the name softly as Hiko concluded,  
"Learn the name of your master. I'm going to teach you boy."  
Hiko smiled,  
"Teach you my forte'!"  
The two stared out into the dusk together, ready to begin a life of sparring.  
  
Hiko stood in front of his student, patiently waiting for him to finish his request to leave the mountain and   
join the war. Finally he responded,  
"So what will you do after you lend your arm to this disturbance? Mitsurugii Ryuu is the strongest of all   
sword techniques. It is the black ship of absolute power that sails the land.  
"Mitsurugii Ryuu will make you a murderer."  
After several more exchanges, Hiko stormed off toward his hut,  
"Go. Go and do whatever it is you want to do."  
A quiet "arigatou" came from the boy, barely heard as Hiko began thinking.  
"Because he is so pure he must do this foolish thing. Does this perhaps mean I am corrupted?  
"As a swordsman, am I really helping society?"  
He thought of the paper in his hut and came to a conclusion,  
"Perhaps I'll just end this life here and begin anew."  
Hiko's last words before removing his blade from his waist were,  
"Pottery is as much an art as swordsmanship."  
~Owari  
a/n: That's just how I would explain his becoming a potter. If it's revealed in the series why he really   
changed, I wouldn't know, I only have the Tsuioko Hen dvds. Dewa! 


End file.
